Bird Marella attorneys Ekwan Rhow, Marc Masters, and Tom Freeman secured a long-awaited $92 million settlement in one of the country’s largest and most high-profile class action suits against social media giant TikTok in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
On October 1, 2021, U.S. District Judge John Z. Lee granted preliminary approval of the $92 million class action settlement on behalf of claims brought by TikTok’s users in the United States — many of whom are minors — for wrongfully collecting their biometric information and private data in violation of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), the federal Video Privacy Protection Act, and other consumer and privacy protection laws.
Rhow was previously appointed co-lead counsel in the federal class action in September of 2020 along with Katrina Carroll of Carlson Lynch LLP and Elizabeth Fegan of FeganScott LLC.
After the federal court’s decision, Rhow said, “this settlement is one of the largest ever achieved, in a consumer BIPA case, and one of the largest settlements in privacy class action.” He continued, “It serves as a reminder, to corporations, that privacy is important and that they will be held accountable for violating consumers’ rights.”
Bird Marella is known for litigating high-stakes class actions on behalf of domestic and multinational corporations and representing plaintiffs when the matter is of significant public interest. To learn more about the firm’s Class Action practice, click here.
